


You Belong With Me

by KittyinShadows



Series: Timdami Week 2020 [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Capes, Crush at First Sight, First Meetings, Love at First Sight, M/M, Xenophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:53:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28163484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittyinShadows/pseuds/KittyinShadows
Summary: Damian Wayne first met Tim at his debut to the Gotham elite. Surrounded by stuffy, ignorant fools, Tim shone bright: kind, brilliant, handsome, and, most importantly, Damian's ideal partner.Timdami Week 2020 Day 1: Love at first sight
Relationships: Tim Drake/Damian Wayne
Series: Timdami Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2063244
Comments: 9
Kudos: 216





	You Belong With Me

**Author's Note:**

> So timdami week landed perfectly on the week of both my finals, and a work trip. so Im having my timdami week rn lmao. I'm gonna try to do the prompts as a series within the same au. Here they aren't heroes, just neighbors. I imagine without the competition Damian would have been absolutely taken with Tim. In this au I imagine the league is more like...some rich guys cult, I guess, but not actively criminal, except maybe some mild ecoterrorism. Here Tim is 17 and Dami is 12.  
> Once again thanks to rottencloset for betaing and throwing ideas around <3

Tim was well acquainted with the Wayne family. He'd followed Bruce's life since before he understood what a tabloid was. He'd had an innocent childhood crush on Dick, and a less innocent childhood crush on Jason. He was friends with Cass, ever since she'd knocked on his front door and haltingly explained that she wanted to be friends with her neighbor. So of course he was at the party where Bruce's youngest was going to be introduced to the Gotham Elite. 

He knew about Damian, as it wasn't hidden information, but they'd never met. Bruce had waited to bring him to these events until he was twelve. Cass had given him some insider info, saying that Damian had been raised in a cult, and could be quite prickly.

Tim caught glimpses of the kid in the distance, being introduced to everyone with Bruce or Dick by his side. He mingled with various people he knew while he waited for his eventual turn. It never came though, because he was interrupted in his conversation by a tug on his sleeve. 

Damian had slipped up beside him, an impressive scowl on his face. Before Tim could say hello, the kid snapped, "Who are you?"

“Excuse me?” he replied, because this was not how introductions in Gotham high society worked. Tim had mastered the smile and handshake by seven. His mother had practiced with him every day when she got home for months, opening the front door with a Janet Drake, nice to meet you.

“You are too young to be a business mogul or head of house. This is my debut and yet you have not so much as glanced at me. And Dick said that you are a good man and potential friend, as though I need one. So who are you. How have you wormed your way into my family's graces?"

Tim wasn't quite sure what to say to that. He'd never been aimlessly accused by a small angry tween. Before he could find the perfect response Laurence Burke, the pompous old bigot, decided to butt in. 

"How positively unsurprising. You know," his voice was directed to the woman standing next to him, "I'd hoped his father would have him better trained by now. I suppose there’s no overcoming such uncivilized parentage,” he capped his comment with a smarmy little chuckle. One woman joined, while Laurence’s wife looked embarrassed, and another man looked vaguely uncomfortable. 

Damian looked angry but...confused. Like he knew it was a slight against his mother but didn’t understand how. How hidden away must Bruce have kept him to avoid these comments until now?

He realized no one was going to say anything. These grown adults were just going to let this behavior pass.

Well fuck that.

“You know, Laurence,” he began, careful to keep his fury out of his droll, casual tone, “I don’t know that you have any right to comment on civilized bloodlines, considering your family made its fortune in the transatlantic slave trade. But I suppose if you judge civilization by human rights violations, then,” he raised his glass with a flat, accusing smile, “the Burkes most certainly take the prize.” 

Laurence was turning bright red, his face twitching, while his wife was looking pointedly at a spot near his shoe. The other woman had already switched sides in loyalty, faulting to the cattier insult, and the other man looked delighted.

Damian was looking at him with big wide eyes. 

He turned to the kid with a more genuine smile, and held out a hand. “Timothy Drake, but I go by Tim. My mom owns Drake Industries and my Dad’s an archaeologist. Cass is a friend of mine, and I went to school with Jason. It’s good to finally meet you.” Damian took his hand hesitantly, but his shake was firm. “What do you say we go find Dick so we can catch up? I haven’t seen him in a while.”

Damian glanced at the group of adults he clearly wasn’t comfortable with, and back across the ballroom to where Dick must be, and slowly nodded. “That would be acceptable.”

“It was good talking with you Mr. and Mrs. Burke. I hope you can patch things up with your daughter.” Then he put a light hand on Damian’s shoulder and steered them away.

“I...thank you. For defending me.”

Tim huffed an annoyed breath. “You don’t need to thank me for doing the right thing. Burke is a dusty relic of the old Gotham who has no business putting his big mouth in other people’s business. If the others weren’t so used to letting bad behavior go unpunished they wouldn’t have left that to the high schooler.”

“Tt. So they are cowards.”

“Yeah. Yeah they are. I wish I could say that won’t happen again but. Well. Just know that nothing they think about you or your family matters, okay? The only thing that matters is what you think.”

“I am not a child. I know that.”

“Of course,” Tim agreed readily. “Oh, there he is. Dick! Look who I found.”

“Dami!” Dick pulled his brother into a hug. “There you are! I told you not to do that.”

“It is alright, Richard. Timothy defended me.”

“Defended...defended you?! What happened?”

Dick turned a firm, concerned gaze to Tim. Man...he would’ve done anything to have that be about him when he was Damians age. The kid was lucky. But he couldn’t bring himself to envy that. “Just Burke being a bigot as always. Maybe tell Bruce to keep a closer eye on the guest list when Damian is coming. Nothing we couldn’t handle though, right?” He directed his smile to Damian. The kid didn’t smile back, just nodded seriously. What a character. It was sweet.

He and Dick talked for a while more, mostly Dick telling stories of Damian he’d been collecting for two years. The kid didn’t talk much, but every time Tim glanced that way Damian’s big green eyes were watching him.

—·—

Damian was silent on the drive home. This wasn't unusual when he was unhappy, but after Dick and Jason's loud whining, he wasn't used to his own brand of silence. He knew at this point it was best to wait his son out. So he kept his eyes on the road, and tried to enjoy driving such a beautiful vehicle. When Damian did speak, it wasn't what he expected. 

"What made Mama stand out to you?" Damian asked, voice contemplative. Oh lord. His youngest hadn't ever directly said he and Talia should still be together but, well. He had been dreading the talk since Damian's first passive aggressive comment. How to explain that she didn't want his life and he didn't want hers? Especially since they would always love each other, a little. 

He couldn't just ignore it though. And his therapist was always talking about honesty. 

"Well. I was nineteen, as you know, still directionless is college. I wasn't really involved in the business much yet, but I got weekly newsletters of a sort, talking about the biggest things. Talia was coming with your grandfather on business regarding green energy. I saw where they were from and—well, I'd just finished a semester of Arabic and a semester of Latin, and I sure wasn't meeting anyone from ancient Rome any time soon. So I went, and I joined the conversation with my awful accent and ignorant ideas, and she absolutely ripped me a new one. I was horribly embarrassed, but also…strangely enchanted. There's nothing quite as amazing as someone both competent and kind. I was sure she hated me, but after the meeting she approached me and suggested I come visit them sometime. She thought her father's teachings could be good for me. I felt I couldn't possibly say no to that. What, uh, what brought this up chum?"

Damian was silent, but now Bruce saw it not as unhappy silence but thoughtful silence.

"Mama… She said she knew you were the one because of how excited you were to change the world, despite your incompetence. That she walked in expecting a dull meeting with some irreverent old white men, and walked out in love." 

"That's—I hadn't heard that before." it was simultaneously insulting and flattering, as so many things with Talia were. He wondered what his son was getting at. 

When Damian spoke, his voice was no longer contemplative, but firm, decisive.

"Baba, I have decided on who I shall have as my partner."

… he fucking what now? 

"Damian, kiddo, what do you mean?" 

"I want to marry Timothy Drake." 

It was a good thing Bruce was trained, because he nearly crashed the car then. 

"Damian, what did he say to you? Did he flirt with you? Did he touch you?" Part of Bruce's brain reminded him of Dick at age 11, talking about how Barbara was the most beautiful girl in the world, or Jason mooning over Diana. But this was so out of Damian's normal behavior, he couldn't believe it. 

Damian scoffed. "Tt. Nothing so vulgar Baba. He simply showed himself to be competent and kind. He… He defended me against a bigot, without a second thought. When he smiled at me it was genuine. He proved himself, and I will have him as my groom. He does not know yet of course. But when the time comes and I am old enough for him to acknowledge me, Baba, I will need your help wooing him.”

"Of course, chum," Bruce felt comfortable saying because this will be long forgotten by that time. No childhood crush at first sight lasted...right?

**Author's Note:**

> Damian listens to a lot of T Swift at 12 yo. Dick thinks it sweet at first, but on the third day of "You belong with me" on repeat because Tim has a new gf, he's significantly less amused.


End file.
